At 8 a.m. on the 30th December, 1941 all forces at Stanley, less the wounded, were lined up. We consisted of R.A., R.A.M.C., Middlesex, Royal Scots, Canadians, and a sprinkling of other units. The march was a nightmare, we marched about 16 miles over mountainous country, surrounded by Japanese patrols who marched alongside our columns which stretched for about 1 ¼ miles. With their machine guns on lorries trained on us, they laughed as they watched us struggling along. Many of the men had wounds and had to be half carried by their comrades. We each carried a few possessions, but many of these had to be thrown away on the gruelling journey. The only item of interest worth recording was that we passed through the areas where the fiercest fighting had taken place, such as Stanley Village, Ty Tam Tuk, Lyemun, Shau Kei Wan, etc. We first passed through Stanley Village, and to those of us who remember it as a fine Chinese fishing village, it gave us an unpleasant shock to see the heap of rubble which was all that was left of most of it.
A few Chinese amahs had gathered and were watching their previous masters shuffling past. Many were in tears. Bitterness, however, tinged our feelings as we saw Japanese flags hanging from the windows of the few houses that remained standing. Still, we could hardly blame these villagers and they were to suffer greatly before they knew freedom again.
Dead bodies were everywhere, lying where they had fallen on the battlefield. On the hillside by Shau Kei Wan we noticed many bodies of Indian troops with their hands tied behind their backs and with bayonets still sticking in their bodies, where they had been cruelly massacred by the Japanese troops. The reeking smell of death, blood, and putrefaction was too horrible to describe. We could not at that time realise the terrible aftermath of war, but we were to see that in the weeks to come.
On the march, many dropped out and were never seen again. When we eventually arrived at North Point, practically everyone was exhausted and on the verge of collapse. The conditions of our new abode were astounding. The camp had neither water nor sanitary facilities, and each hut was riddled through, and flies were everywhere. We just gasped with horror and refused to believe that any nation, which had any degree of humanity, could confine about 1, 500 men into this hellish place but we were to realise that in the Japanese forces, humanity and kindness were totally non-existent. We were herded into the huts and in a dazed and exhausted condition began to shift the filth and manure which littered the huts, in some places knee deep, before we could find a corner in which to collapse for the night.